‘People are flushing toilets 10 times’: Trump mulls pouring conservation rules down the drain & Twitter cannot hold it

President Donald Trump is taking aim at water efficiency laws, arguing that they paradoxically encourage waste due to weak water pressure. He vowed to seek “commonsense” solutions to America’s toilet troubles.

Despite ongoing Democratic impeachment efforts in Washington, a trade row with Beijing and another war of words heating up with Iran, the president took time on Friday to address a problem much closer to home – perhaps lurking in your very own bathroom.

“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers, and other elements of bathrooms,” the president said. “You turn on the faucet and you don’t get any water… people are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.”

They take a shower, and water comes dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly dripping out.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now “strongly” considering whether to scale back conservation laws, the president continued, though it is unclear exactly what action he would prefer it to take.

The internet soon erupted into mockery, sending the #toiletgate hashtag trending in response to what the president surely intended to be a serious proposal.

“When you have fast food, KFC and Diet Coke all the time I’d imagine it would take more than one flush,” another #toiletgater joked, referring to the president’s much-reported penchant for junk food.

Notwithstanding the chuckles pouring from Twitter’s peanut gallery, the issue isn’t all laughs. Low-flow toilets were introduced on the heels of the Energy Policy Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, but while the law intended to limit water consumption, it brought a host of problems along with it – chief among them being the smell.

The legally mandated toilets caused major issues in San Francisco in 2011, forcing officials to dump over $100 million into a project to gut the city’s sewer system after waste – and its accompanying odor – built up to an intolerable degree thanks to the stingy lavatories, whose weak flushes didn’t produce enough water to wash away the refuse. The city blew another $14 million on a three-year supply of bleach to combat the stench.

While green-minded critics are sure to oppose any effort to deregulate the environment tooth-and-nail, some netizens were all aboard with the president’s proposal, lining up eagerly to receive a boost in toilet power.

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